Luxury car makers Mercedes, BMW, Volvo post strong half-yearly growth

The first half of 2018 has been kind to most luxury car makers operating in India. Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Volvo have reported strong year-on-year growth for the January-June period.

Mercedes-Benz India continues to lead the Indian luxury car market. In the first half of 2018, the company dispatched 8,061 units to customers.

Mercedes-Benz continued to dominate the luxury car segment, posting sales of 8061 units. Over the same period last year, the sales figure stood at 7,171 units translating to a growth of 12.4%. The company's SUV and sedan portfolios registered almost equal increment in Jan-June 2018. Sales of Mercedes SUVs grew by 15.9% while that of the sedan offerings witnessed an increase of 15.2%. Mercedes-Benz India has announced that Martin Schwenk will be taking over as Managing Director and CEO effective 1 November 2018, replacing Roland Folger.

BMW India recorded its best half-yearly sales dispatching 5,171 units to customers. Compared to the same period last year, BMW India sales (BMW + MINI) grew by 13%. In all, BMW sold 4,890 vehicles while MINI's contribution to total sales was 281 units. The company reports that their SUV lineup drove sales growing by 26% over 2017. The launch of the new BMW X3 helped push sales.

Vikram Pawah, President, BMW Group India, said -

Our strategy of focusing on introducing new and innovative product segments in the Indian luxury car market has started showing results. The BMW 6 Series Gran Turismo and the BMW X3 have already exceeded our expectations and we see remarkable sales contributions coming from both in the future. Also, introduction of Euro 6 petrol engines in our product portfolio has played an important role in our strategy.

SUVs helped BMW India to an increment of 13% YoY for the Jan-June period.

Volvo's growth plans in the Indian market were given a healthy boost with 33% growth recorded in the first half of 2018. The Geely-owned company sold 1,242 units overall with the XC60 accounting for 25% of the total sales volume. The newly launched Volvo XC40 is expected to help the company carry forward this growth momentum.